Brent Simmons on leaving Q Branch, the company he co-founded with me and Dave Wiskus to produce Vesper:

I decided to leave because I wasn’t working on the software that
I’ve been obsessed with for more than a decade.

I turned 47 a little while ago, and I’ve had some reasons to
reflect on the shortness of life, and I realized how very
important it is for me to work on the software that I think about
every day. I kept putting it off, but every day that I put it off
hurt more than the previous day. I realized that I couldn’t
continue — I have to do the work that I need to do.

I’ve known Brent since before I was writing Daring Fireball, and he’s always been on my short list of “people I’d love to work with”. And, he still is. He’s a good friend and one of the most amazing developers I’ve ever encountered.

For Q Branch and Vesper, life goes on. We don’t have anything to announce today, other than that this is not the end. In the meantime, I simply want to publicly wish Brent well. He’s still full-time at The Omni Group, which means Q Branch work had been relegated to nights-and-weekends time. Nights-and-weekends time is for your passions, not for obligations.